March 1, 2013: WVU sports; broadband; Morrisey; library

February 28, 2013

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WVU contract has conflict of interestEditor:It would have been more reassuring if Drew Payne had told Oliver Luck not to include Payne's company in awarding the WVU sports media contract. Then there would be no conflict of interest.Julian Martin

Charleston Is Poca being left out of broadband work?Editor:In reference to broadband service expansion by TechNet for Frontier Communications in West Virginia, back on May 15, I confronted Frontier about running a phone/Internet service line to my home.I live in a rural area and the nearest line is about 5,500 feet from my home. There are existing power poles to my residence. Frontier sent an engineer out to do a survey. He stated that Frontier would give me the first 1,000 feet of service line and I would have to pay for the remaining 4,500 feet, at $3,787. I forwarded their letter to Gov. Tomblin for assistance.Mr. Tomblin's response was that he knew of no grant that would help pay for this service. Mr. Tomblin, in return, sent the letter to the Public Service Commission. Michael Fletcher of the PSC said he knows of no assistance, either.
I don't understand. Out of $9 million dollars of wasted router money that no one applied for, why isn't the state smart enough to put money in a fund for small service lines?According to Dana Waldo of Frontier, they increased broadband to 158,000 homes and built 2,600 miles of Fiber optic, but they cannot lay 4,500 feet of cable on a power pole.I guess the rural Poca area in Putnam County does not qualify for this type of service.Jerry Jeffries

Poca

Morrisey dishonest in rhetoric on the EPAEditor:Some West Virginia leaders appear to have slightly backed off on the divisive "War on Coal" or anti-EPA rhetoric, but the new attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, has continued with the dishonest claims perpetuating divisiveness. He falsely claims in a recent stern letter to President Obama that workers were laid off because of Environmental Protection Agency permit delays.The Feb. 11 letter signed by Morrisey asks for the nomination of a new EPA administrator more sympathetic to the coal industry.

His only example that actually alleges any real harm on West Virginians has a serious factual flaw. Morrisey sources a news release from Rockefeller, Manchin, Rahall and Tomblin, issued a week before the election, bashing the EPA, stating, "After the EPA delayed issuing a needed 402 permit, Consol issued a WARN Notice tonight notifying [145] workers that they would be laid off."Morrisey falsely claimed in his appeal to Obama that 150 coal miners were laid off because of this EPA permit delay; however, Consol Energy stated in its annual report filed with the SEC on Feb. 7 "Consol Energy was able, in this instance, to redeploy these [145] employees to work at another adjacent coal mine property for which a permit was already issued."Rob GoodwinCharleston Library not 'parasitic,' BOE President ThawEditor:Regarding your article of Feb. 22 ("Supreme Court Upholds Kanawha Library Funding Decision"), I was quite dismayed by the comments of Pete Thaw, the Board of Education president, describing the library's relationship with the board as "parasitic."If Mr. Thaw does not recognize the library's role in educating the schoolchildren of Kanawha County, perhaps the Board of Education can volunteer to assist students with science fair experiments, social studies projects, homework hours, computer classes and term paper research. (It's not all story time, Mr. Thaw).Resources are scarce, but libraries are known for making every penny count. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for our educational system. Mr. Thaw clearly has no idea the extent to which libraries foster critical-thinking skills and create a culture of learning.It's a small price to pay, which returns great dividends for our communities.Mr. Thaw's comments reflect yet another school official with a "teach to the test" mentality, but Kanawha County students deserve more.Virginia D. KlineKeyser